Educational Philosophy Chapter 5 Homework Discuss The Concept Shamelessness Regard Setting Limits

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CHAPTER 5

THE PHILOSOPHER-KING: PLATO

Chapter 5 Key Concepts

Socrates trial and death convinced Plato that Athenian

democracy was irrational mob rule. His experiences with the

Thirty convinced him that rule by a greedy, cruel social elite

was no better than mob rule.

In Plato s metaphysics, the highest level of reality consists

of timeless essences, or entities called ideas, or forms. Such

In Plato s epistemology, knowledge is always of things in

their unchanging, eternal form, of their essence. Opinion, by

Plato used the concept of the Divided Line to illustrate

the relationship of the worlds of being and becoming. The

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In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato illustrates the soul s

progression from the lowest to the highest levels of

The Republic contrasts two views of morality. The

instrumental theory of morality asserts that right and wrong

must be determined by the consequences our acts produce,

The just state functions fully. An unjust state is

dysfunctional, with some essential need not being met. Only

The just state meets three basic categories of needs:

SOCCIO ARCHETYPES OF WISDOM

Plato identifies four cardinal virtues necessary for a good

society and for happy individuals. He defined virtue as

excellence of function. Wisdom is the virtue associated with

The human soul resembles the state in that it, too, is

divided into three parts: reason, spirit, and appetite. The just

Plato rejected democracy as unjust because rule by the

majority usurps the rightful role of the guardian class. The

Unable to distinguish necessary desires from unnecessary

ones, democratic souls are at the mercy of their strongest

Plato thought that the excessive liberty found in

democracies contains the seeds of an opposite impulse known

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Chapter 5 Teaching Tips

1. Point out that the Greek root of our word idiot originally

referred to the idiotes, a completely private, nonpolitical

2. Discuss the Philosophical Query on page 154. How can we

best balance individual liberty with the need for functional

institutions and organizations? Must we choose between

excesses of liberty or excesses of tyranny?

3. Most students find Plato s theory of the origin, nature,

and decline of democracy fascinating. Take advantage of this

4. Discuss the concept of shamelessness in regard to setting

5. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama

declared, We are the ones we have been waiting for. Both

he and his opponent John McCain routinely referred to the

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6. Weigh the pros and cons of a more rigid (safe from

terrorists?) Platonic social order and a completely free

(individualistic?) democracy. How free are people born into

culturally and economically deprived families? Might there be

a benefit in somehow restricting people s educational and

career choices to areas fitted for their abilities and

personalities instead of letting us all fight it out

competitively? Who decides who is fit for what? How?

7. H. L. Mencken s vitriolic critique of democracy, for all its

excesses, contains some compelling elitist criticisms. The best

8. Use geometry for a somewhat sophisticated example of

how Plato s theory of forms was meant to answer the

Sophists attacks on the possibility of absolute truth. Recall

that the Sophists claimed that each individual is the

measure of things and that appearance equals reality. That is,

everything is somehow a matter of convention, agreement,

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This formal quality belongs to the triangle, not the

geometer. The geometer is describing a public (objective)

The form Euclidean triangle is not lines on paper or a

blackboard, it is not a visual image in a person s mind

though it is grasped or seen with the mind. All

representations (sometimes called instances ) of the form

Euclidean triangle participate in this form. They are

representations or copies; they are enough like the form itself

that they remind us of the real thing. But sooner or later,

these copies change: They decay or fade.

Yet every physical manifestation of the form Euclidean

triangle varies from this: Lines produced by the highest-

quality laser printer are, in fact, bits or points of matter (ink);

the smoothest paper, under microscopic scrutiny, contains

pits and ridges and fibers; and so on. Although we may not be

able to perceive the differences and imperfections among

9. Today s divisive political camps invite comparison to

Plato s argument that the excesses of liberty provoke calls for

10. In line with tip 9, use the For Deeper Consideration on

11. For a fun exercise, have the class discuss Plato s

assertion that in democracy gone wild, it s love me, love my

dog. Where is the line between sane, humane treatment of

nonhuman animals and unbalanced egalitarianism ? See the

12. For a more serious discussion of Plato s fear that

13. Use the photo on page 132 of the grieving child as a hook

to have students ask themselves what the thing is that they